This Man is Helping Businesses Turn Good Karma Into Capital

Helaina Hovitz
, ContributorI write about social good, philanthropy, charities, and nonprofits.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Businesses like to be able to measure the result of their efforts: Sales. Profits. Market share.

Yet, social good has always been difficult to quantify.

Until now.

Ben Block, a lawyer by trade, left his law firm last year to create a site that, in its early days, is being dubbed the “Uber for favors.”

His goal is twofold: make good deeds more mainstream and more profitable at the same time.

Initially, GozAround was funded to help people within any given community find volunteer opportunities that don’t require an orientation, an apron, or a consistent commitment. Local communities post various volunteer needs online, and users sign up to receive them directly into their inbox.

What makes the site really unique, though, is how it functions on a point system, offering what some people call “digital karma” points. As you earn more points by helping more people, you increase your rank on the site and can eventually redeem those points for rewards. It’s kind of like frequent flyer miles for giving back.

Primarily active in Canada for the past year, Block has his sights set on infiltrating the U.S., especially since American banks have government mandated community reinvestment requirements.

“I was pitching a socially active company as an advertiser and he said, ‘We have thousands of employee volunteers, can you help us better understand what they are doing?’” Block said. “Being a startup I nodded and said, ‘Yes, of course’ and got started building."

As more people speculate as to whether America can operate as a “Sharing Economy,” GozAround may be a huge step in the right direction.

With 225 charities registered and 38 business pre-registered, Block is targeting companies that operate employee volunteer programs but aren't quantifying what is being done—so they have no idea what the return on investment is. He's also enrolled companies that have been tracking hours but nothing more, and need to give life to that information.

What GozAround can offer, aside from an efficient way to search for and organize volunteer opportunities, is a way for those businesses to track and share their employees' volunteer activities, which includes hours spent and what they spent their time on. Essentially, while they may understand the value of their employee programs, they need help to increase the monetary "returns" they see from those investments.

Believe Fit, one of GozAround’s earliest testers and investors, is a national retail chain of women's fitness apparel that brings in $3 million in revenue and has 30 employees. Kyle Gronning, the company’s CEO and Founder, decided to use GozAround to help fundraise for his local Food Bank.

“GozAround helped build awareness for us and better legitimized the event,” says Gronning. “We are in a time where people are more aware and they seem to want to help people more, any free time is spent helping people in need, fundraising or being a social influence and I really feel this platform can accomplish that.”

He continued, “I think being able to integrate more and use it as a real ‘helping’ network will help businesses attract more—and better—customers.”

As far as impact goes, research shows that employees—especially millennials—are more engaged, satisfied and proud when their employer offers them the option to participate in these programs.